Michael MacConaill

Michael Aloysius MacConaill, MRIA, FLS (27 July 1902, Ballymena, County Antrim – 28 January 1987) was an Irish medical doctor, anatomist, author, and activist.

Born Michael Aloysius McConnell, the eldest of five children, MacConaill's father Michael was a merchant and his mother Lucie (née Gallagher) was a mezzo-soprano.

He was educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, in Belfast, by the Irish Christian Brothers. In 1919 he entered Queen's University Belfast's Medical School, and completed his BSc in the Anatomy Honours School in 1922.

In 1929 he earned an MSc degree, also from QUB. He was awarded the Queen's University Travelling Medical Studentship for 1929–30 to University College, London. He was a lecturer in Anatomy in the Anatomy Department at Sheffield University, and in 1942 he was named Chair of Anatomy at University College Cork (UCC).

MacConaill's activities in the Irish War of Independence, described as "First Aid Instructor and Organiser of Medical Services, Belfast Brigade III Northern Division 1919-1921" are recorded in his Witness Statement to the Bureau of Military History in 1951. Provided by Wikipedia